Spinach and Anise Seed Pizza Dough
Speed - 95%
Simplicity - 97%
Tastiness - 98%
97%
Excellent!
The pizza crust turned out really soft and pleasantly chewy. Hardly any better choice of toppings than a rich and earthy mix of mushrooms and cheese.
Ingredients
For the Spinach and Anise Seed Pizza Dough
- 3.5 Cups All Purpose Flour
- 1/2 Cup Spinach Puree
- 1 Tablespoon Anise Seeds
- 3 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 Tablespoon Yeast
- 1 Tablespoon Sugar
- 1.5 Teaspoons Salt
- 3/4 Cup Warm Water
For the Toppings
- 1 Cup Mozzarella Cheese
- 1 Cup Button Mushrooms sliced
Instructions
- Combine the yeast, sugar, and marm water in a bowl. Leave for 10 minutes.
- Whisk the anise seeds into the flour.
- Add the active yeast mixture, olive oil, and spinach puree into the dry ingredients. Stir well.
- Knead the dough for 5 minutes.
- Set the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and leave for about an hour to rise.
- Stretch the dough into a crust.
- Top your pizza.
- Bake for 25 minutes at 400F.
We've seen lots of baking recipes that incorporate spinach into the batter or dough for one good reason – it simply works, amping up the nutritional value in the process. It should certainly work well in a pizza dough too.
Begin by activating about a tablespoon of yeast in warm water and some sugar. Just leave it until it turns foamy while you get everything else ready.
Also take note to use just half a cup of warm water for now, to account for the water content you'll be adding into your dough as you incorporate the spinach puree.
Meanwhile, let's get the spinach ready. Blanch it in a pot of boiling water just until it begins to soften a bit.
Put the wilted spinach leaves in a food processor and pulse until smooth. You may add some water to get things going in your grinder.
Get the dry ingredients ready. We all know that spinach wouldn't give much flavor to our pizza dough. That's why it works well with most baked breads – it has a very neutral taste.
We're then adding some anise seeds to give our dough some aroma while keeping the flavors subtle.
Once the yeast mixture is all foamy, stir it into the dry ingredients.
Also, add in the spinach puree (which you should have measured to half a cup), and the olive oil.
Stir everything well until the dough comes together into a ball. Set it on a floured work surface and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. A good 5-7 minutes of hand kneading should be enough. 
Leave the dough to rise for about an hour to an hour and a half in a lightly oiled and covered bowl.
It should rise up really airy and twice its original volume. Otherwise, you'll know you did something wrong and would have to start over again. 
To keep the flavors light and simply earthy, I topped this pizza with sliced mushrooms and cheese. Simple can often be equally excellent.
Weird dough, awesome results. If you want to improve your pizza making skills even more, you may want to start cooking outdoors on a wood fired oven. If you don't have the money, time or space to build one in your backyard, you can actually turn a Weber grill into a decent imitation and make smoky wood fired pizza on your standard kettle grill!
Ingredients
For the Spinach and Anise Seed Pizza Dough
- 3.5 Cups All Purpose Flour
- 1/2 Cup Spinach Puree
- 1 Tablespoon Anise Seeds
- 3 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 Tablespoon Yeast
- 1 Tablespoon Sugar
- 1.5 Teaspoons Salt
- 3/4 Cup Warm Water
For the Toppings
- 1 Cup Mozzarella Cheese
- 1 Cup Button Mushrooms sliced
Instructions
- Combine the yeast, sugar, and marm water in a bowl. Leave for 10 minutes.
- Whisk the anise seeds into the flour.
- Add the active yeast mixture, olive oil, and spinach puree into the dry ingredients. Stir well.
- Knead the dough for 5 minutes.
- Set the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and leave for about an hour to rise.
- Stretch the dough into a crust.
- Top your pizza.
- Bake for 25 minutes at 400F.
Mobile Wood Fired Pizza Oven Options For Your Backyard
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